Jozef Puska loses appeal against backdating life sentence for murder of Aisling Murphy

Jozef Puska, serving a life sentence for the murder of Ashling Murphy, has failed in his appeal to have his sentence backdated to his arrest date. The Court of Appeal ruled against Puska, upholding the trial judge's decision to date the sentence from the verdict, not his custody.

Puska's legal counsel argued that sentences should typically be backdated to the date of custody, as this triggers parole board reviews. They contended there was no clear basis for Judge Tony Hunt to deviate from this practice when sentencing Puska for the 2022 murder.

However, Judge Patrick McCarthy, delivering the appeal court's decision, stated that sentencing judges possess discretion regarding backdating sentences. He emphasized that courts must exclude considerations of remission and parole board issues when fixing sentences. The judge affirmed that trial judge Tony Hunt had articulated valid reasons for not backdating the sentence to Puska's arrest in January 2022, meaning the sentence officially began in November 2023.

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a sentencing judge has discretion as to whether to backdate a sentence to the date a person goes into custody, and in this case trial judge Tony Hunt had articulated his reasons not to do so.